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Mads Østberg is the highest-ranked Norwegian rally driver this season, but he risks losing that distinction this week as his team will sit out the New Zealand rally. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Østberg to skip New Zealand World Rally event

June 3, 2012

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Mads Østberg's status as the highest-placed Norwegian driver in the World Rally Championship is likely to be short-lived after he confirmed that he would not be contesting the next round in New Zealand.

Østberg, whose fourth-place finish on the Acropolis Rally last week moved him ahead of countryman Petter Solberg into third place in the WRC standings, had hoped to contest the Brother Rally New Zealand next month in his Adapta World Rally Team Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

However, a lack of additional sponsorship has forced him to skip the trip to the southern hemisphere and the Auckland-based round June 21-24. He will return at Rally Finland in early August.

“I am very happy [to be the top Norwegian],” said Østberg, whose co-driver is Swede Jonas Andersson. “We are halfway through the season, and we have done a great job, but we definitely will not be going to New Zealand. Money controls everything, and had we done it, then we could have missed two events later in the season. It will be disappointing from a championship point of view not to go, but it's our only option, and I'm very sad because we're in a strong position.”